Angostura x Swizzle What…?

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by ANGOSTURA® bitters. All opinions are my own!

Hello Loves,

So, as many of you know, I tend to stick to a few simple but beloved mixed drinks when I’m out and about. My go-to bar drink is the ever-chic screwdriver, or for us normal folk, a vodka orange juice. Yes, I know, super basic, but I like what I like.

My one exception is when Sameer gets creative and starts playing around with his cocktail concoctions (HAHA get your mind out of the gutter)… I just can’t resist my man in his bar tending outfit! I lie, there is no outfit.

Anyway, with the warmer weather, comes colder cocktails and our personal favourites this summer are tiki drinks dashed with ANGOSTURA bitters. For those of you unfamiliar with ANGOSTURA bitters, it is a plant-derived tincture designed to add a little sumpin sumpin to your cocktail, mocktail or culinary recipe. It is also known for its medicinal qualities and can aid digestion #winwin. While most of you probably already use ANGOSTURA bitters in your classic cocktails (think Manhattan, Old Fashioned and Mai Tai), they bring equally delicious layers of flavour to our latest cocktail obsession – the swizzle. This summer we decided to add a swizzle stick to our bar cart. What’s a swizzle stick you may ask? Well, simply put, it’s a stick crafted from wood used to stir still drinks and circulate crushed ice for a perfectly cold, refreshing cocktail. Pretty big job, if I may add. Summertime is definitely the perfect time to enjoy a swizzled drink, as this bartending technique takes tiki drinks to new heights and keeps them icy cold in high temps. You can certainly feel the island vibe wherever you are, especially when you combine ANGOSTURA bitters with your swizzled beverage.

While there are a ton of swizzled cocktails out there, the drink most closely intertwined with ANGOSTURA bitters is the delicious Queen’s Park Swizzle. This elegant, rum based drink is named for the hotel where it was first invented in Trinidad in the 1920s (flashback!). It features rum, lime juice, simple syrup, mint and a few healthy dashes of Trinidad’s most famous export, ANGOSTURA bitters. Scrum-diddly-umptious!

OK, folks, now follow me:

STEP 1

ADD 1 OZ. OF LIME JUICE AND 1 OZ. OF SIMPLE SYRUP TO A HIGHBALL GLASS ALONG WITH 8-10 MINT LEAVES. THEN GENTLY MUDDLE.

STEP 2

FILL GLASS WITH CRUSHED ICE AND POUR IN 2 OZ. OF YOUR FAVOURITE RUM.

STEP 3

SWIZZLE. SWIZZLE WELL. BASICALLY UNTIL THE GLASS IS FROSTY COLD

STEP 4

PACK IN SOME MORE CRUSHED ICE AND ADD 6-8 DASHES OF ANGOSTURA BITTERS. GARNISH WITH A MINT SPRIG

STEP 5

Enjoy poolside or anywhere because this drink is just so delicious.

Be sure to add ANGOSTURA bitters to your bar cart this summer so that all your favourite beverages – from swizzles to contemporary cocktails to the classics – are only a few dashes away. It can be purchased at any of your local liquor stores and most supermarkets.

This summer ANGOSTURA bitters is also hosting Swizzle Royale, a bartender competition in the U.S. and Canada that invites professional mixologists to showcase their swizzle skills! Whether you’d like to participate or just come to watch and have fun, check out the site to find a competition near you!